Atlanta Braves Team Report

Inside Pitch

Not long after the hoopla over visits by the Yankees and Red Sox at the end of June, as attendance drooped, the Braves stopped opening the concessions stands on the terrace level behind home plate. Not enough interest in the team. Even fireworks nights stopped bringing in the crowds. By the last week of the season, there weren't even 10,000 fans in the stands for what was a make-or-break series with the Marlins.

Perhaps the fan base will be reignited in 2010. It will be Bobby Cox's final season before retiring as manager, and the Braves figure to have a premier rotation, always the key to a winning club.

The pitching strength arrived before the 2009 season, when general manager Frank Wren made a big splash by signing Derek Lowe and the Braves' first Japanese player, Kenshin Kawakami.

But it was the low-key signing of Javier Vazquez that proved to be the most valuable acquisition, not only for the way he pitched, but also for how much he helped Jair Jurrjens. Thanks to his influence, Jurrjens began to add and subtract not only with his fastball, but also with his slider and changeup.

Rookie Tommy Hanson turned out to be every bit as good as the organization had hoped. He can throw four pitches for strikes, but the 23-year-old's most impressive skill is his ability to adjust not simply within a game, but within an inning. Or an at-bat.

Lowe, meanwhile, had a mostly disappointing season, pitching fewer than seven innings in 25 out of 34 starts. Five times he didn't get out of the fourth inning. He doesn't know how his mechanics got so out of whack, but he was planning to waste no time working on improvements.

Third baseman Chipper Jones will be doing the same thing after taking some time off to rest and heal some bumps and bruises. This was the worst season of his professional career; his average dropped 100 points from last season, when he was the National League batting champion. His only consolation is that, because the balls he is hitting have topspin on them rather than backspin, he knows that indicates a mechanical flaw.

Catcher Brian McCann, the cleanup hitter, had what was for him an inconsistent year, due to vision problems early in the season, and then to a raft of injuries that he nevertheless played with, including wrist and oblique soreness.

The Braves offense came to life midseason, after second baseman Kelly Johnson went on the disabled list with a sore right wrist. That gave Martin Prado a shot at playing every day. Manager Bobby Cox inserted Prado at second base and hit him second in the batting order, moving shortstop Yunel Escobar to the power-hitting fifth or sixth slot. Voila! Instant offense. Both earned National League Player of the Week honors, Prado for June 29-July 5 and Escobar for July 16-19.

Both Prado and Escobar played most of the season with speed-hampering injuries -- groin and hip flexor, respectively -- as did center fielder Nate McLouth, who was on the disabled list with a strained left hamstring. Their healthy return next season may tempt Cox to try to manufacture more runs, or at least move runners into scoring position more often.

With the announcement that Cox will take a front office job after next season, the thinking is that the players will have extra incentive to make the 2010 playoffs. Cox should, too.

NOTES, QUOTES
* RHP Tommy Hanson ended his rookie campaign with an 11-4 record and a 2.89 ERA. It was the lowest ERA for a Braves rookie who made 20-plus starts since Boston's Nate Andrews had a 2.57 mark in 1943.

* RHP Derek Lowe vows to work on improving his mechanics immediately—beginning the week after the season ended. "I don't know where I went wrong," said Lowe, whose 4.67 ERA was the highest in his five seasons in the National League. "I just got into so many bad habits as far as mechanics." He's been flying open, allowing hitters to see the ball, which is why they were able to square up pitches.

* RF Matt Diaz had the area at the base of his right thumb drained following the Oct. 2 game. Diaz, on the bench that night, thought he'd merely jammed the thumb, but it swelled as the game went on. A sliver of a splinter caused an infection and a cyst, which were excised and drained, and he didn't play in the season's final three games.

* C Clint Sammons got the start in the season finale. Starting C Brian McCann (both wrists) and backup C David Ross (right hand) were too banged up.

* LHP Mike Gonzalez's 80th appearance of the season, on Oct. 1, gave the Braves bullpen two relievers with 80 or more outings. RHP Peter Moylan pitched in his 87th game in the finale, extending his single-season franchise record.

By The Numbers: 9—Starts, out of 34, in which RHP Derek Lowe pitched seven or more innings.

Quote To Note: "It's disappointing. It's frustrating, But it's over." —RHP Derek Lowe on his sub-par season.

ROSTER REPORT
The Braves are already excited about next season, thanks to stellar pitching performances by veteran RHP Javier Vazquez, RHP Jair Jurrjens and rookie RHP Tommy Hanson. They're anticipating the return to form of 3B Chipper Jones, and a more consistent year offensively from C Brian McCann, who got off to a slow start after experiencing vision difficulties. GM Frank Wren, however, knows there is a mine field ahead, in the form of the free agency of two key relievers, RHP Rafael Soriano and LHP Mike Gonzalez.

Biggest Needs
RHP Tim Hudson's mutual option with the club must be exercised by the end of the World Series; that, at least, will help determine the 2010 budget. How much money is available counts even more this offseason, since the Braves' closer tandem of Gonzalez and Soriano are both free agents. The composition of next season's outfield is in flux, and first base may be an open position; late-season addition Adam LaRoche is also a free agent.

Free Agents
LF Garret Anderson, LHP Mike Gonzalez, 1B Adam LaRoche, INF/OF Greg Norton, RHP Rafael Soriano.

Every other move the Braves make in the offseason depends on whether they re-sign Gonzalez, Soriano or both. LaRoche will not be offered a long-term contract. Neither Anderson nor Norton figures to be back.

Arbitration-eligible
RHP Jorge Campillo, RHP Buddy Carlyle, OF Ryan Church, OF Matt Diaz, INF Kelly Johnson, LHP Boone Logan, RHP Peter Moylan.

Moylan pitched in more a team-record 87 games, and he was the team's most effective reliever overall; the Braves won't mind paying for that. Diaz led the majors in August with a .404 average, 1.148 on-base-plus-slugging percentage and a .467 on-base percentage (minimum 50 at-bats). Campillo and Carlyle are not expected to be back. Church, Johnson and Logan are not likely to command high arbitration awards if they even get that far in the process.

In Limbo
* RHP Tim Hudson and the Braves have a mutual option that must be exercised immediately following the World Series.

* RHP Kenshin Kawakami had a disappointing season, but he had a lot to become accustomed to, including the different heft and covering of the ball, the strike zone, the hitters and the five-man rotation, not to mention food and language. But if the Braves retain Hudson, he may be the odd man out.

Medical Watch
* CF Jordan Schafer (left wrist surgery in September 2009) will be in a cast until Christmas. Schafer, who showed so much promise in spring training that he skipped Class AAA and went straight to the Braves, making the opening-day roster, struggled at the plate and wound up in the minors after all. He played in 50 games with the Braves before being sent down.